I would think the heavy buying of US debt by foreign entities would be far more worrisome. That being said, there is no way this deal is going through if the Chinese government is helping to fund this deal in any way.

The Chinese buy out IBM's personal computer unit, and now the Chinese want to buy an American energy company that extracts oil and gas from U.S. lands.

Where does it end? If the Chinese buy all of America's manufacturing base and commodity companies, then do we not just become a colony of China?

Gotta agree with the Demos here.

More...

So, let's sell them a few of our non-strategic assets. They will learn how to run a real company (in a non-communist way) and will have political & economic reasons not to go to war with us (i.e. important politicos will lose their shirts in a war with the US, so they will oppose it). Sounds like a good plan to me. We'll just manipulate the world markets like we usually do and buy back the assets on the cheap after they blow up on stupid stuff (earning the kick-arse I-Banking fees in the process - rock on!)

From the recent moves of the Bush Admin....you would think that the US is moving further away from sovereignty by shifting to Globalism...Globalism is the loss of a country's ability to form its own trade laws...Other countries are going to make the law...

China is playing its labor card in concert with a dire need to provide the bare bones basics for decent productivity...

China..Cafta..Nafta...are all about the shifting use of labor ...

Capitalistic paper will search out..find...and use labor that will do it cheaper...no matter what the product is...as long as the law allows which keeps them in business...

The question of overall world efficiency is not in sink with each country's laws...environmental concerns...or human rights..

Nafta...Cafta..and China (wal-mart) create havoc for the US domestic playing field...and unfortunately those who benefit most by buying from wal-mart..cafta...nafta...are voting themselves out of their livelihoods...

Each country needs to find its balance...supposedly if your going to play...you play by the rules...each game has them...

The US initiates projects such as these with unproven theory...and seems to move sometimes just to be moving....

Looks like paper is going to win out against those who are disrupted and dislocated...

This is not cool...and very cowboyish.....cowboys get themselves into a lot of trouble sometimes...

Anybody remember what was said before/after the Iraq war ? Isn't exactly the same is it ?

Well China policies..Cafta..etc..will be no different..because a cowboy is the president...Good guy...but I believe Jim Beam has claimed a few of his brain cells....

Ultra Petroleum goes to geographic extremes (Wyoming and China) in the search for petroleum products. The independent exploration and production company recovers natural gas from Cretaceous sandstone deposits in the Green River Basin of southwestern Wyoming. The oil and gas company has expanded into China though the acquisition of Pendaries Petroleum, a Houston-based oil and gas exploration company that has large oil assets in Bohai Bay. Ultra Petroleum has proved reserves of 1.5 trillion cu. ft. of natural gas equivalent in the US, and 45.5 billion cu. ft. of natural gas equivalent in China. The company also has assets in Pennsylvania and Texas.

real traders dont worry about a UCL buyout being a threat to national security. UCL produces less than 1% of our oil. it aint like it is CVX or XOM.

i for one, would like a freakin end to the whole melodrama. everyday, all i hear on CNBC is UCL this and china attacking our national security that.

it would probably be better for us traders if they let CNOOC buy UCL since CVX will have to shop for another takeover target, which means more volatility.

plus, who cares if CNOOC has ties to the Chinese govt? Boeing gets help from the US govt as do many other private companies.
and how can we criticize russia for not opening their oil companies to foreign investors but not do the same?

It has nothing to do with national security. It's about letting people who don't share the exact same values and beliefs and have our form of government buy and own a piece of our pie. Funny how we're holding hands (literally) with the very people who attacked us on 9/11 and having more than 8% of our entire economy owned by the Saudis. So, it has nothing to do with national security, it has everything to do with what puts money into the pockets of our politicians and the corporations they are in bed with. Call me cynical but I've seen too much through my years in and out of the system and the state of affairs is in disarray.